2. It is a journey of eleven days from Herob by the way of Mount Seir up to Kadesh Barnea.
3. And it was in the fortieth year, on the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the Israelites according to all that Yahweh had instructed him to speak to them.
4. This happened after defeating Sihon king of the Amorites, who was reigning in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who was reigning in Ashtaroth in Edrei.
5. On the other side of the Jordan in the land of Moab Moses began to explain this law, saying:
6. “Yahweh our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
7. Turn now and move on, and go into the hill of the Amorites and to all of the neighboring regions in the Jordan Valley in the hill country and in the Negev and in the coastal area along the sea, into the land of the Canaanites and into the Lebanon, as far as the great river Euphrates.
8. Look, I have set the land before you; go and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them and to their offspring after them.’
9. “And I spoke to them at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to bear you alone.
10. Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and look; you are today as the stars of the heaven in number.
11. Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, may he add to you as you are now a thousand times, and may he bless you just as he promised you.
12. How can I bear you by myself, your burden and your load and your strife?
13. Choose for yourselves wise and discerning and knowledgeable men for each of your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.’
14. “And you answered me, and you said, ‘The thing you have said to do is good.’
15. And so I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and then I appointed them as leaders over you as commanders of groups of thousands and commanders of groups of hundreds and commanders of groups of fifties and commanders of groups of tens as officials for your tribes.
16. And at that time I instructed your judges, saying, ‘hear out your fellow men, and then judge fairly between a man and between his brother and between his opponent who is a resident alien.
17. You must not be partial in your judgment; hear out the small person as also the great person; do not be intimidated by any person, because the judgment is God’s; and the case that is too difficult for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it out.’
18. And so I instructed you at that time concerning all of the things that you should do.